No, The Video Game Industry Is Not Getting Stale, You Are

FORWARD: This is a re-upload of a short article I wrote in 2023. I took it down for a variety of reasons, however I have come to appreciate it, and wished to share it again, as the rhetoric seen in this article has been spreading round again

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As a writer, and avid video game nerd, Twitter (X for the five people who call it that) is an infinite tool of information. I have over the years, written poetic works, samples for articles and blog posts, and crude game design documents, which have all been sparked by a singular tweet. Recently however, there has been one sub-genre of tweet which has taken over my feed, and supplied my phone screen with many a rant and arguments…

The tweet of the video game defeatist.

Wait, Who’s Saying All This?

From streamers to YouTubers, it seems a lot of content creators are ‘content’ with spreading a narrative that the video game industry has, for better terms, had an iron pole lodged between its gears. Since 2022 with prolific Call of Duty YouTuber NoahJ456 tweeting that, in a year of releases like Pokémon Legends Arceus, and Elden Ring, that gaming is ‘SO STALE’.

Of course, one has to remember that opinions do exist. One man’s stale game is another’s GOTY. However, there is a trend here, amongst these creators. From Noah to FaZe Sway, there is a video game link. The Shooter. Call of Duty and it’s Warzone. Fortnite. Blatant battle royale cash grabs and rip offs. A genre so saturated in bland ideas, with rare innovation (believe me, it does exist. Epic Games with the recent Fortnite Creation for example) that one would indeed be remiss to say that video games are of course, stale. As many within this argument have stated however, of course one would be sick of one genre. However, I believe it runs a little deeper than that.

The Creator And Their Curse

Picture this. You dedicate yourself to a YouTube channel, with videos following a certain game mode in a beloved FPS. You’re flown out to events, become friends with developers, and above all, you LOVE this game mode. You dive through all the Easter eggs, make as many guides for your viewers as possible. It’s clearly shown through your work ethic that you indeed, love this game.

But then something happens. It becomes…stale.

There had been bumps in the road before of course! Not every sequel had this game mode in it, some story and design choices by the developers were…confusing, however you remain hopeful. Then it ends. A rushed, under budget ending made up of rehashed content. They try of course, to continue the story, you love that part! But the game. What it used to represent to you, that’s gone.

The image above is Call of Duty Zombies YouTuber Mrroflwaffles, his reaction? A sour face attributed to the game mode he once loved. That story however, is mix between how I believe he felt, and how I felt. This game mode, was everything to me. With ADHD, hyper-fixation is as sure as a sunrise, and I devoured every tid-bit this game had to offer. And then, it changed. Some people loved it ,sure, but I didn’t. It became ‘stale’. Content creators stay on a game for so long, that when it changes, or tried to implement a slither of innovation (difficult to imagine I know), that feeling of when they started creating goes, and what’s left is a panicked staleness. “What do I play now?” “Do people want to see this?” “What happened to gaming?”

This of course, affects everyone.

A Bit of Nostalgia to End On

You knew this was coming. That big word. The one that stores all those memories and fond ideas of the things you enjoy in a rose tinted hue. “I don’t need to try any other genre of game, this one right here is good enough for me! I remember when…”, we know how the story goes.

The title of this post is, to be truthful, a little bit accusatory. There is nothing inherently ‘wrong’ in believing that video games are going down the gutter, that the industry end times are near! However, I don’t believe I am wrong in having it there. You, like me, have a nostalgia. A time gone by where video games were simple. Where everything was perfect. The controller fit in your hand snugly. The gameplay moved almost as if you coded it to do so. Everything played exactly the way you wanted it to. Then it changes. It grows and morphs into a franchise, with different developers, and suddenly the simplicity is gone. Now it’s all ‘engines’ and ‘frames’, ‘bugs’ and ‘hackers’. The rose tint fades to reveal a game you don’t recognise. Maybe you never did. And so you tweet out the only thing you can think of to justify this tragedy:

“Video games have become stale. Video games are DYING”

But I implore you, reader, if you feel that way, to pick up a random game. An RPG. A strategy. An indie title (trust me, there are plenty of good ones). Play 10–20 minutes, pause it, and come back to that tweet you sent. Before you know it, that tweet you sent out will suddenly be replaced with those lovely words:

‘user has deleted this post’